Portland has a new GM?

[Drbio]

Report: Texans senior VP jumps to Portland

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Associated Press


HOUSTON _ The senior vice president of the Houston Texans is set to become the president of the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday, a Houston television station reported Tuesday.

KRIV-TV reported that Steve Patterson, who most recently worked for the Texans but spent nine years with the Houston Rockets as the team's general manager and general counsel and built most of the pieces of the franchise's NBA titles in 1994 and 1995, was on his way to Portland on Tuesday for Wednesday's announcement.

Patterson could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

"I can't confirm that right now," Texans spokesman Tony Wyllie told The Associated Press Tuesday. "We will have a statement at the appropriate time."

Reached at his Houston home by The Oregonian newspaper of Portland, Ore., Patterson would say only: "Where they are right now, if anyone is going to comment, it ought to be the Blazers."

The newspaper also reached a spokesman for the Texans, who said: "To be honest, we don't really have any comment until everything is official. Our comment is we're not going to comment until an announcement is made."

Patterson, a 1984 graduate of the University of Texas Law School, became one of Houston's most successful professional sports executives, moving from the NBA Rockets to the International Hockey League's Aeros to the NFL's Texans.

During his tenure as the Rockets' general manager from 1989-93, Patterson drafted Alabama's Robert Horry, signed free agent Matt Bullard, and negotiated trades for Kenny Smith, Vernon Maxwell, Otis Thorpe and Carl Herrera. All were key parts of the Rockets' 1994 NBA championship team.

[Mandyahl]

president and gm are different positions, no?

[Drbio]

They can be. There was a radio report on ESPNRadio that had him going to both. I don't know ???

[Mandyahl]

oh ok. i was just confused because the story just said president.